Full sentences aren't really my thing,

Palo Alto -> Houston -> Palo Alto
First of all, drove to the wrong airport. I've never lived in a city with more than one airport before.
But got to the right airport with time to spare. Arrived in Houston, survived blasting heat and humidity, ended the day at Cody's apartment.
Tuesday: Day One. Took the bus to the convention center. Hung up my poster, met the education coordinator of the Palm Beach Zoo. Entered opening ceremonies, located a familiar Oregon Zoo face, listened to Jim Collins speak.
Sessions for that day included something about how to make zoos go from good to great. Highlights of this session included seeing Tony (former OZ director) and Tiffany (former ZooCamp counselor, now director of education at the Santa Barbara Zoo). Also having Tony tell Jim Collins, "That's my intern. She goes to Stanford." I like to think with a certain amount of pride.

Other sessions: using social media. Not many highlights. And Translating Science Speak. Met the woman at Disney who tried to hire me for the research associate position. Conversation was brief:

Her: Are you done yet?
Me: Not quite.
Her: Well hurry up and finish. I still need to fill that position.
Me: I'm working on it as quickly as I can!
Her: Do you speak French?
Me: Yes.
Her: Good. We'll be in touch.

Ate lunch with a big group of Oregon Zoo people. Anne and Charis convinced me to come to the Education Track Reception to network. Attended. Met a grad student from OSU who studies basically the same thing as me. Met two women from the Ellen Trout Zoo who wanted to know absolutely everything about ZooCamp. Met the director of ed from the Knoxville Zoo who, after hearing my story, called me the Taylor Swift of the zoo world. Also notable quotes from that interaction included, "She nice, super smart, and she's not white. We'll all be working for her someday." and "What zoo do you want to direct? Because you can choose any of them" (from the Denver Zoo ed guy). Like Anne, these people also offered to introduce me to anyone I wanted to meet. Go go gadget confidence boost!

Returned to apartment whereafter Cody and I went to a tiny bar and listened to some amazing blues performed by a man with no teeth and white dreadlocks who looked to be about a thousand years old.

The next day, opening session included a talk from Joel Sartore. Empty words, beautiful pictures. First session was about engaging youth to drive environmental awareness. Tons of amazing research methodology. Met the director of ed at Woodland Park and re-met the director of The Ocean Project who invited me to sit at their lunch table so we could nerd out over evaluation techniques. On our way to lunch, we ran into the director of the Steinhart Aquarium/Chief of Public Engagement for the Cal Academy of Sciences who saw my name badge and (I'm not even kidding) goes "Ah! I've been meaning to find you. I would like to invite you out to the Cal Academy to talk about evaluation research." And he ate lunch with us too. And I freaked out. Inwardly. Honors lunch was inspiring. OZ won the best exhibit award. I cheered loudly. And they honored a woman named Karen Sussman who is now one of my new heroes. Luckily, I got the chance to stop her in the hall and tell her that and she looked genuinely appreciative. She told me to just do it, go forth, and conquer. I told her I was working on it.

After lunch, session two on children and nature. Then session three on zoo opposition. Met the development director for OZ who somehow I've never met, but who was very nice. Very emotional session, for me. Touching stories about how zoos overcame attacks from IDA, PETA, etc. Very educational. Harked on something Jim Collins said...how zoos and aquariums are one of the only sectors where when one institution succeeds, we all succeed. And when one fails, we all ask what we can do to help. Cooperation, not competition.

And then the long-awaited poster session! I scurried to my poster and entertained discussion and questions pretty constantly for the full hour and a half. Met a girl from the Houston Zoo who had come to shadow my Otter Camp years ago and somehow still recognized me. Met a woman who's Masters thesis was extremely instrumental in forming my research. Got much support from other OZ staff which was heart-warming. Got invitations from two zoos to come do dissertation research with them. Re-met my evaluation idols, and received invitations from them to attend the round table session for the Conservation Education Committee the next day. (!!)

Tired but buzzing, returned to apartment. Cody and I got dinner then went to a Turkish coffee shop where there were belly dancers. Ahaha. Priceless.

Next day, last day. Arrived early and helped my evaluation idols set up for the CEC round table. Ended up in a group with the deputy director of the Toledo Zoo and three managers from the Columbus Zoo, the San Antonio Zoo, and the Seneca Park Zoo. The D.D. for the Toledo Zoo introduced me as "the girl we're all going to want to hire someday." Would like to think that I contributed a few things to the conversation. Earned my invitation. Had a lovely chat with the Seneca Park manager afterward.

When that was done, something strange happened. I sat down to plan out my day. Wanted to make it to the zoo, but also catch my flight. Exchanged phone numbers with Tanya and Krista, planning to meet them at the zoo. Started feeling nauseous, went to bathroom, started dry heaving. Came outside and started sweating, feeling faint, feeling more nauseous. Anne attempted to introduce me to a women from Brazil who seemed very cool but I had to sit down. Waited for about fifteen (but felt like an hour) minutes to pass before trying to find OZ people to tell them I didn't feel well. Found Anne and Tanya, told them that I suspected that I was having a mini panic attack. Anne took me back to her room so I could lie down. I feel guilty for imparting my troubles upon them but they were very kind and offered nice advice and assured me that they were there to support me, etc.

Feeling better, headed to zoo day. Met Jill Mellen, one of my zoo heroes. Conversation:
Anne: This is Kathayoon, she's one of our zoo prodigies. (Insert me wanting to die) She grew up with us. She also applied for your research associate job.
Jill: Ah yes, I know who you are.
Me: I would really like to work with you sometime, perhaps doing my dissertation.
Jill: Well, as long as you keep doing what you're doing, there will be a job for you when you're ready.

Internal me freaks out. But, not much time to do a lot more since I only had 20 minutes at the zoo. But I'm really freaking proud of myself because these are all the animals I saw in 20 minutes:
Sea lions
Flamingos
Zebras
Storks
Cranes
Eland gazelles
Lions
Tigers
Little birds
Elephants
Cheetahs
Ocelot
Fossa
Jaguar
Clouded leopard
Meerkats

That's a lot. That's almost one animal a minute. I am sad that I didn't see the reptile house or the naked mole rats but I would definitely have missed my bus if I had. The nice people at the Houston Zoo let me store my bags in a private room which made my running around possible. They also called the Metro for me to see where I should pick it up and they Zoomered me to their equivalent of Gate A so I would be closer to the Metro station and wouldn't have to walk in the heat with my bags. They win.

And that was basically that. I came back to Palo Alto with a big stack of business cards and an ongoing love for this crazy zoo world. Last night, an hour after I got back, I went out with my roommate and actually maybe made some friends. At least one. Maybe two or three. Today I drove to San Francisco to spend the day with Christine, who was in town for a wedding. Tomorrow is Farmer's Market day, so definitely expect my first food-related entry.

I realize there might have been a lot of horn-tooting on my part in this entry but I'm just so darn excited that I'm actually managing to make headway in this profession while working on my degrees. I feel employable and like my expertise is coveted. Furthermore, I feel like people within my institution and in institutions around the country respect me and believe in my abilities and want to help me succeed. It's a pretty great feeling. I know I'm scared for this whole Stanford experience, but I think now I have something calming to focus on: the fact that I'm slowly becoming a real player in my industry, not just a girl with dreams who worships people who do cool things (although I am that as well). I wish I could go to the International Zoo Educator's conference, but I think Anne is going to present my research for me because another trip in two weeks is just too much stress.

Could go on and on, but won't. Instead, will just be content to look forward to AZA 2011...Atlanta!